'Babylon 5' creator speaks about failure, future of media at MIT

Tuesday

May 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMMay 26, 2009 at 4:03 AM

Middle-aged, irreverent, innovative and bold, J. Michael Straczynski is no joke, even though he doesn't hesitate to make a few. Creator of the popular sci-fi TV series "Babylon 5," known to many as his initials, JMS, spoke to a packed MIT lecture hall on Friday for the second annual Julius Schwartz Lecture hosted by the school’s comparative media studies department.

Jeanne Amy

Middle-aged, irreverent, innovative and bold, J. Michael Straczynski is no joke, even though he doesn't hesitate to make a few.

Creator of the popular sci-fi TV series "Babylon 5," known to many as his initials, JMS, Straczynski spoke to a packed MIT lecture hall Friday for the second annual Julius Schwartz Lecture, hosted by the school’s comparative media studies department.

Known best for his writing on "He-Man," "She-Ra," "The Real Ghostbusters" and most recently for the major motion-picture "Changeling," Straczynski spoke briefly on the value of failure.

“If you don’t fail once in a while, you’re not doing it right,” Straczynski said. “But you can’t fail all of the time and achieve anything, unless your dad was the President or something.”

Through several personal tales of failure and distress, Straczynski inspired his fans and challenged them to take risks.

“You have to do what scares you, even though, especially though, it scares you,” he said.

Straczynski comes from Paterson, N.J., where people grew up to work at gas stations and supermarkets, not to become writers, he said. He pushed himself as those around him told him he could never make it as a writer.

“We all try to find lives where courage isn’t necessary,” he said, “but that’s not possible.”

Straczynski took the ultimate risk in creating a new kind of television series with "Babylon 5," he said. The show consisted of a five-year story arc that, while common today, was unheard of in 1994 when the series premiered.

He wrote 92 of the 110 episodes of the series, with each show acting as a chapter in the over-arching epic novel.

The storyline depicted the interactions among interstellar species, including humans, of the 23rd century contained within a space station called Babylon 5.

Another perceivably revolutionary aspect of the "Babylon 5" experience was Straczynski’s interactions with the audience through the Internet. He is known for answering viewers' questions online and responding to their e-mails personally.

The lecture proved to be no different. He stayed two hours after his lecture to answer every fan's question. Straczynski also faced questions from Professor Henry Jenkins III, chair of MIT comparative media studies department.

“We’ll see a complete merging of TV and the Internet,” Straczynski said of the future of media in response to a question from Allen Bryan, a Cambridge resident and MIT doctoral candidate. Straczynski explained that the connection between video games and television would strengthen both genres.

Straczynski also mourned the demise of good writing when Maria Mogavero, an actress from Medford, asked him what young writers are missing. “There’s a real lack of a love of storytelling, lack of appreciate of good structure and a lack of patience,” Straczynski said.

“I don’t know how to not write and tell stories,” Straczynski said. “That’s how you can live forever – books in libraries are there forever.”